Metropolitan police’s director of public affairs put on extended leave until police hacking enquiry is over Dick Fedorcio, the Met’s director of public affairs and internal communication, has been put on extended leave until Scotland Yard’s investigation into phone hacking is over. He has been in the post for eleven years, but he was criticised last month for hiring Neil Wallis, a former deputy editor at the News of the World, as a consultant. Wallis has been working in a PR capacity since leaving the paper in 2009. He was arrested as part of the Operation Weeting inquiry in July. Fedorcio gave Wallis a two-day a month contract to assist the Met’s press office in October 2009. Fedorcio told the Home Affairs select committee that he would not have hired Wallis had he known he was to be arrested. He also said he had not asked Wallis about phone-hacking at the paper before hiring him. The close ties between News International, which owned the title until it was shut down in July, and the Met, have prompted concerns about the intimacy of the relationship between the two organisations. The Independent Police Complaints Commission is currently investigating his dealings with Wallis. Scotland Yard sources have said the hacking investigation is likely to run into next year. Phone hacking Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers Metropolitan police London Police James Robinson guardian.co.uk
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Campaign calls for fashion houses to stop using sandblasting, a technique for producing denim with artificially worn look Three of Italy’s best-known fashion houses are being accused of refusing to stop selling “killer jeans” that threaten the lives of workers in the poor countries where they are produced. The Clean Clothes Campaign began pressing in February for leading fashion manufacturers and retailers to ban sandblasting, a technique for producing denim garments with an artificially worn look. The large amounts of silica dust produced can lead to silicosis, a potentially lethal pulmonary disease. The process was banned in Turkey in 2009 after evidence was produced to show that 46 former sandblasting operators had contracted silicosis. Almost 34,000 people have put their names to a petition drafted by the Clean Clothes Campaign and made available for endorsement on the website Change.org . The campaign’s Italian spokeswoman, Deborah Lucchetti, said a number of well-known designers, manufacturers and retailers had already eliminated sandblasted denim clothing from their collections. They included including Levi’s, H&M and C&A. In Italy both Gucci and Versace had responded favourably. Gucci in particular was “responsible and advanced … mature.” But Giorgio Armani, Roberto Cavalli and Dolce & Gabbana had not budged, Lucchetti said. “In these seven months, they are the only companies that have remained totally indifferent.” The campaign has singled out Dolce & Gabbana for special attention. Lucchetti said the Clean Clothes Campaign made a practice of notifying companies before they were targeted. “Dolce & Gabbana telephoned me to say thanks for the information and that it did not interest them. I was pretty surprised. This is a serious issue. People have died because of sandblasting,” she said. In a statement issued on 5 August, Change.org accused Dolce & Gabbana of having “deleted posts on its Facebook wall after Change.org members posted messages demanding that the company ban sandblasting”. None of the three companies named by the Clean Clothes Campaign could be reached for comment. Italy Europe Fashion Ethical business John Hooper guardian.co.uk
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Syrian opposition and western diplomats say unconditional call for Assad to go would have far-reaching implications The United States is poised to shift its position on Syria by calling on President Bashar al-Assad to step down because of the violence he has inflicted on his own people and his failure to implement meaningful reforms for the last five months. Barack Obama could issue the demand as early as Thursday in a speech that will mark a dramatic departure in the Syrian crisis. Until now US policy — echoed by Britain and its EU partners — has been that Assad must lead a transition or get out of the way. Now, for the first time, the US president will tell him bluntly to go. In previous statements Washington has described Assad as “illegitimate” or “part of the past”. The White House on Wednesday decried Assad’s “heinous actions”, and spokesman Jay Carney said: “We are all watching with horror what he is doing to his own people.” Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN, said on Wednesday that Washington had evidence of “crimes” in Syria and was ready to use it to step up pressure on Assad. “He has lost his legitimacy … and Syria would be a better place without him,” Rice said. “We are looking … to lend support to the people of Syria who have the same aspirations for freedom and democracy that we have seen in so many other parts of the world.” Syrian opposition sources and western diplomats predicted that an unconditional call for his departure would have far-reaching implications, though it would likely be couched in terms of US support for the aspirations of the Syrian people. The precise timing and content of a presidential statement was still under discussion — partly because the US wants a full account of Assad’s six hours of talks on Tuesday with Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmed Davotoglu, officials said. The British and French governments are considering their response amid doubts in Whitehall about the wisdom of the US move. It was unclear whether the US would also recognise a Syrian opposition government. Unlike in Libya, where the opposition is based in Benghazi, the Syrian rebels have no base inside the country and are divided on key issues. US media have reported in recent days that the White House is more eager to make the announcement while the state department is more cautious about the ramifications in the likely event that Assad ignores Obama’s call. In continuing violence on Wednesday, 17 people were killed in raids in Homs, al-Jazeera reported. New attacks by security forces were also reported from the north-eastern city of Deir Ez-Zor. Citizen journalists working for Avaaz said there had been nine fatalities there and two near Deraa. The Turkish ambassador to Syria visited Hama, scene of recent heavy civilian casualties, where his presence reportedly led to the cessation of attacks by security forces. The envoy reported that tanks and heavy weapons were being moved out, Davutoglu said in Ankara. Saudi residents in Syria were reported to have been arrested in apparent retaliation for Riyadh’s criticism of Assad, who King Abdullah described earlier this week as presiding over a “killing machine”. The US also imposed sanctions on Wednesday on the state-owned Commercial Bank of Syria, its Lebanon-based subsidiary and the largest mobile phone operator Syriatel. The US treasury said it was “taking aim at the financial infrastructure that is helping provide support to Assad and his regime’s illicit activities”. Signs of a shift in US policy came from the state department on Tuesday. “The message from 2009 was if you are prepared to be a reformer, if you are prepared to work with us on Middle East peace and other issues we share, we can have a new and different kind of partnership,” said spokeswoman Victoria Nuland. But “that is not the path that Assad chose.” The US estimates that 2,000 people have been killed during the protests. A state department spokesman declined to comment further except to say the US wanted to raise the pressure on Assad. Syria Bashar Al-Assad Barack Obama Arab and Middle East unrest US foreign policy Obama administration Middle East United States Ian Black guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Rob Shoesmith is currently camped outside London’s Covent Garden Apple store in a tent, awaiting the release of the iPhone 5. Not all that weird, except of course that the iPhone 5 hasn’t even been announced yet. Why is he doing it? As a “marketing and PR experiment,” of course,…
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Lawrence Donegan, the Guardian’s golf correspondent, assesses each hole of the season’s final major Paddy Allen Lawrence Donegan
Continue reading …As the dust settles from days of rioting in London and other English cities, it turns out that police finances may have suffered the heaviest damage of all. An 1886 law specifies that police authorities are required to compensate victims when damage is caused by people “riotously and tumultuously assembled”…
Continue reading …Blood tests that promise to determine a baby’s sex just seven weeks into pregnancy are highly accurate if used properly, a new study finds. Researchers found that the tests, which analyze fetal DNA in the mother’s blood, are 95% accurate at seven weeks and 99% accurate at 20 weeks, the…
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Nationalist message on T-shirt changes to call for tolerance when taken home and washed Rightwing rock fans at a nationalist music festival in eastern Germany were taken by surprise when souvenir T-shirts they were given were emblazoned with a secret anti-extremist message. The slogan on the shirts first read “hardcore rebels” along with a skull and nationalist flags. But once the T-shirts were washed, the tagline turned into a message from a group offering to help far-right extremists break away from the neo-Nazi scene. “If your T-shirt can do it, you can do it too – we’ll help you get away from right-wing extremism,” reads the slogan on the shirts after their first washing. The shirts were handed to 250 people at a “Rock for Germany” festival in Gera by organisers after they had been donated anonymously. They were provided by Exit, a group which helps people disassociate themselves from the far-right. Exit claimed to have pulled off the stunt after contacting festival organisers in the eastern state of Thuringia using a false name, saying they wanted to support the scene while retaining their anonymity. The T-shirts were in lieu of a donation, they claimed. The organisers accepted and dished out the freebies at the festival on Saturday. Twenty-four hours later a warning message was sent from the organisers via Facebook and SMS warning festival-goers that the T-shirts were not all they seemed. “Exit has wasted several thousand [euros] of tax payers’ money,” said the missive. But Bernd Wagner, founder of Exit, insisted that no state funds had been used in the initiative. “It was all paid for by private money – not one cent came from taxpayers,” he said in a phone interview. He said a supporter had approached Exit with the idea, saying he had developed a special fabric ink for concealing hidden messages. “It had never been done before. It was completely new. We had to experiment with it a lot to make sure it worked, to ensure the top layer would not wash away in rain, for example,” he said. Gordon Richter, a member of the far-right NPD party who organised the festival, said the stunt was a waste of money. But Wagner said the stunt went better than they ever dared hope. “We wanted to raise awareness about our programme, especially among the young and less committed,” he said. “There were so many points along the way where our plan could have failed, but it all went perfectly.” Germany The far right Europe Helen Pidd guardian.co.uk
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Artist and activist detained by authorities for 81 days for alleged tax evasion has spoken little of his ordeal Police interrogated Chinese artist Ai Weiwei more than 50 times during his detention and threatened him with up to 10 years in jail for inciting subversion, Reuters news agency has reported, citing an unnamed source familiar with the events. Authorities released Ai in June, amid international outcry over his 81-day detention. State media said he was held for economic crimes and released “because of his good attitude in confessing” and a chronic illness, adding that he had agreed to pay back taxes he had evaded. But according to Reuters, the source – who did not want to be identified for fear of retribution – said questioning focused on the proposed “Jasmine Revolution” protests in China in February and writings that could constitute subversion. Police officers discussed the contents of Ai’s blog and Twitter account “line by line”. His family has always maintained his detention was retaliation for his social and political activism. It came amid a sweeping crackdown on dissidents, activists and lawyers, apparently triggered by the anonymous call on an overseas website for “Jasmine” protests inspired by the Arab spring. The source said interrogators asked Ai whether he knew who the organisers of the “Jasmine” protests were, but the artist denied all knowledge. The call drew little response in China. According to the account given to Reuters, plainclothes officers who halted Ai at Beijing airport on 3 April hooded him before putting him in a car and driving him to a secret location where he was held for a fortnight. The 54-year-old was later moved to another location where two officers watched him round the clock, their faces often inches from his, even monitoring him as he slept and insisting he put his hands on top of the blanket. He was not allowed to speak and had to request permission to drink water and use the toilet. “It was immense psychological pressure,” the source said. When Ai told police their actions were illegal, officers replied: “Do you know before Liu Shaoqi died, he was holding the constitution? … Talk about illegality, there’s no difference between the country that we are in now and the time of the Cultural Revolution.” Liu was one of China’s top leaders but was purged and died during the brutal political turmoil which Mao Zedong unleashed in the 1960s. Reuters’s source said police told Ai: “You criticised the government, so we are going to let all society know that you’re an obscene person, you evaded taxes, you have two wives, we want to shame you. We’ll not use politics to deal with you.” Even on the day of his release, officers reminded Ai he could still face 10 years in jail for inciting subversion to state power – a vaguely-worded charge often used against dissidents – the source said. He had to agree to conditions including no media interviews, no meetings with foreigners, no use of the internet and no interaction with human rights advocates for one year from his return home. Ai has given few details of his detention, beyond saying that he experienced “extreme conditions”, and says he is not able to give interviews. But he has spoken to media including the Guardian, and this week attacked the treatment of friends held because of him in several Twitter messages . Ai Weiwei China Tania Branigan guardian.co.uk
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Former News of the World editor and lawyer claim that statement to select committee on phone hacking was ‘mistaken’ James Murdoch is expected to explain within the next 24 hours why he did not mislead a parliamentary select committee investigating phone hacking at the News of the World. He has until Thursday to reply to a list of detailed questions asked by the Commons culture, media and sport select committee, following allegations by the former editor and former head of legal affairs of the now defunct News International tabloid that one of his statements was “mistaken” . The former News of the World editor, Colin Myler, and the paper’s ex lawyer, Tom Crone, who alleged that Murdoch had misled the committee, will also be sending letters to MPs ahead of tomorrow’s deadline for supplementary evidence. The three letters, along with a fourth letter from the former overall head of legal affairs at News International, Jon Chapman, are expected to reopen the scandal over just who knew how widespread phone hacking was at the News of the World. “These letters are going to be dynamite,” said one source with knowledge of proceedings. The committee considers them so important that they are returning from their holidays to have a private meeting to discuss the new evidence on Tuesday. It is believed Murdoch has been asked a series of forensic questions in relation to payments to Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator formerly employed by the News of the World to hack voicemail messages. The committee want to know why Myler and Crone, who lost their jobs when the paper closed last month, publicly challenged Murdoch’s claim at the committee hearing that he knew nothing of an internal email providing evidence that more than one “rogue reporter” was involved phone-hacking . Murdoch has said he “stands by his testimony to the select committee” and Thursday’s letter is expected to provide evidence to back this claim up. Myler and Crone are, in effect, jointly accusing Murdoch of being part of the cover-up, one in which the company’s executives twisted and turned to conceal the truth about phone hacking and blame it on a single “rogue reporter”. Murdoch’s crucial claim to the committee was that although in 2008 he had personally agreed to a payout of £700,000 to hacking victim Gordon Taylor, he had done so in ignorance of the true facts. He said Crone and Myler had told him the payout was legally necessary. Murdoch, sitting alongside his father Rupert, claimed that Crone and Myler had concealed from him the crucial piece of evidence in the case: that an email had come to light with a voicemail hacking transcript, marked “for Neville”, allegedly a reference to Neville Thurlbeck, the News of the World’s chief reporter. The existence of this email, had it been made public at the time, would have exploded the “rogue reporter” defence and begun to implicate the rest of the NoW newsroom. John Whittingdale, chairman of the culture sport and media select committee, said after Myler and Crone issued their statement in July: “We as a committee regarded the ‘for Neville’ email as one of the most critical pieces of evidence in the whole inquiry. We will be asking James Murdoch to respond and ask him to clarify.” •
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